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It just gets more bizarre... So this story, which would be hilarious if it were not true, actually starts last month when Navalny in his anti corruption crusade did a video on the Muscovite 'National Guard' (a force set up a couple of years answerable only to the 'President') run by Putin's old henchman/bodyguard from St Petersburg days Viktor Zolotov.

The Navalny video.

Well nothing particularly new there - we all know these types of scams happen in Muscovy - imagine the scams on the bridge. Well that was until Zolotov (64yrs old) made his own video:

There are some class lines here worthy of a Godfather movie; "Nobody has ever given you the spanking you deserve, so hard that you felt it in your liver... I simply challenge you to a duel. In the ring, on the mat, wherever... I promise in several minutes to make a nice, juicy steak out of you".

Sadly the 'duel' is unlikely to take place at present as Navalny is currently serving 30days in prison for organising protests against the pension age changes (where men retire at 65 but only 1 in 4 men in Muscovy live that long).

So today we got footage of the properties owned by Zolotov's son and son in law:

Then a reverse challenge came from Viktor Soldatov (a Muscovite swimmer) on facebook calling Zolotov a "pompous turkey" and challenging him a swimming duel saying "You'll be like a sprat in tomato, like a dressed herring." It is not known if Zolotov wishes to take up Soldatov's offer yet and Navalny has not been able to respond to Zolotov's challenge.

Bizarre it sounds on the surface and it may be just the old St Petersburg thug reverting to his normal self - or trying to gain credibility within his command but some worry such an open attack on an opposition figure means it is open season on Navalny scalp as has happened so often before.